Differential Effects of Alcohol Consumption Behaviours on Working Memory Processes

Alcohol exposure in a clinical population impairs working memory. In order to establish the effects of alcohol on working memory in typical young adults, this study looked at their alcohol consumption behaviours and how they predict working memory. A battery of cognitive tasks and a recreational drug use questionnaire assessed working memory and alcohol consumption of 100 participants. The results revealed that alcohol abstinence predicted set-shifting, verbal executive, phonological loop, spatial and visual working memory performance, which is consistent with current literature. I surmise that the recent use of alcohol plays a role in working memory impairments and offer novel findings that the length of abstinence plays a role in the cognitive recovery of young adults.